Thomistic Philosophy Page

Saint Thomas Aquinas (1224/5-1274)

Saint Thomas Aquinas was a 13th century Dominican
Friar, philosopher and theologian. Named a Doctor of the Church and given
the title "Angelic Doctor," he is the patron of Catholic universities,
colleges and schools. Renowned for his proofs for the existence of God,
Aquinas believed that both faith and reason discover truth; a conflict
between them is impossible since they both originate in God. He was
instrumental, therefore, in the assimilation of the works of Aristotle
into the intellectual life of Western Christendom.

Saint Thomas was born in 1224 or 1225 to noble parents, being the
youngest son of Landulf (descendent of the counts of Aquino) and
Theodora, a noble woman of Naples. At the age of five, he was placed
in the Monastary of Monte Cassino to be educated for a career in the
Church. Because of the promise he showed in his studies, around the
age of fourteen he was sent to the University of Naples to continue his
education and excelled under his new masters. It was there that he was
probably first exposed to the recently rediscovered natural and
metaphysical works of Aristotle.

At about the age of nineteen, he joined the Dominican Order, the Order Friars Preachers. His noble family was not pleased with this choice, however, since the friars, with their the extreme poverty and itinerant lifestyle, were not held in very high esteem. When his mother set out for Naples in order to retrieve Brother Thomas from the clutches of the Dominicans, the friars sent him to Rome, but Thomas was captured by his brothers, soldiers in the Imperial Army. He was taken to a family castle and imprisoned for nearly two years as his family tried to dissuade him from carrying through his resolution to continue as a Dominican. His brothers even sent a prostitute into his cell, but Thomas drove her away with a burning brand he took from the fire. While in prison, he continued his study, and when finally released, he professed his vows in the Order of Friars Preachers. At the age of twenty, he was placed under the instruction of St. Albert the Great, first in Paris and later in Cologne. Because of his large stature and quiet nature, Thomas' fellows called him a dumb ox, but St. Albert declared that Thomas' bellows would
resound throughout the world. In Cologne, probably at the age of twenty-five, Thomas was ordained to the priesthood.

After a few years, Thomas was sent to Paris to teach his brethren and to earn a Doctorate in Theology from the University there. He became
embroiled in a controversy, however, and was delayed in receiving his
degree and occupying a place on the faculty. When a student was killed
by the Paris guard, a dispute between the University and the city of Paris erupted. The University went on strike, but the Dominicans and
Franciscans refused to join in. Consequently, St. Thomas and the
Franciscan, St. Bonaventure, were refused their Doctorates in Theology.
One of the Parisian professors, William of St.-Amour, even wrote a
vicious attack against the friars, The Perils of the Last Times. Thomas responded by writing his own defense of the religious orders, Against Those Attacking the Worship of God and Religion. Finally, Pope Alexander IV and St. Louis IX of France resolved the dispute, and Thomas and Bonaventure received their degrees.

In the fifteen years from 1257-1273, St. Thomas was prolific in his
writing, teaching and preaching. He is said to have been able to dictate
several different treatises to various scribes at once. He held many
academic debates at the University of Paris, far more than most other
professors, and in his life-time he wrote over 50 major works, from
original philosophical works, to theological treatises, to commentaries
on works of Aristotle and on Scripture. His monumental Summa
Theologiae is a masterpiece of medieval scholasticism. He is also
credited with religious poetry in praise of the Eucharist which is used by the Church for the Feast of The Body and Blood of Christ. He traveled
tirelessly around Europe, being called upon alternately by the Papal
court and by his Order to teach in Anagni and Orvieto, then in Rome,
then in Viterbo. He was called back to Paris in 1269, however, to help
quell another controversy there over the use of Aristotle by the Christian scholars. Siger of Brabant, a professor on the Faculty of Arts, had asserted (following the Muslim philosopher Averroes) that Aristotle proves that there is one separate intellect for all human persons and that the world is eternal. Concerned with the threat to the Christian faith posed by these positions, Thomas wrote On the Unity of the Intellect against the Averroists and On the Eternity of the World against the Murmurers, arguing that such positions cannot be supported by reason.

Finally in 1272, he was appointed head of the faculty of theology at the University of Naples. On 6 December 1273, however, he stopped
writing; he is said to have had a vision, after which it seemed to him that all he had written was as straw. Having been called to the Council of Lyons by Pope Gregory X in 1274, Thomas traveled as far as Terracina
in Central Italy, not far from his family's estates, before collapsing. He was brought to the Cistercian Monastery of Fossa Nuova and died there
on 7 March 1274 at the age of about 50. He was canonized by Pope John
XXII on 18 July 1323, and Pope Saint Pius V proclaimed Saint Thomas
a Doctor of the Church in 1567. Pope Leo XIII, in the Encyclical Aeterni Patris, recommended the study of Saint Thomas as the model and norm of Christian philosophy. This last endorsement helped to inaugurate the Thomistic revival of the twentieth century.